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LORD HURON

FOLK ROCKERS LIVING THE DREAM

Imagine you’re camping lakeside; the air is warm, the brilliant stars scattered against the blackened sky and the only sound besides a crackling fire is the soundtrack playing in your head. A perfect addition to that soundtrack just might be Lord Huron. With their dream folk vibe and soft haunting harmonies the band has garnered much attention, touring steadily since the 2012 release of their debut album Lonesome Dreams. Front man Ben Schneider takes a few minutes to chat with BeatRoute while enjoying Christmas with the folks in his hometown of Michigan. The band is just a few weeks away from their final two-month tour across North America before putting Lonesome Dreams to rest for a while in order to get back into the studio.

“It’s been a long year. We’ve had a great time, spent most of it on the road. Once we get back to LA we’ll be rehearsing pretty intensely, I think we leave somewhere around the 20th of January. We’ll do this last long tour and then I think take a break for a little while, get the new material in shape,” Schneider says.

From performing on the Tonight Show to playing at Coachella, the guys from Lord Huron have seen and done a lot in a fairly short timeframe. So, it’s not hard to believe they’re only now getting the chance to enjoy the success, letting it all sink in.

“We’re finally at the point where we can reflect on the year, I think it was all just going by in a blur but now we’re kind of getting a chance to assess where we are. It’s still really hard to gauge where you are in the music business these days, we definitely appreciate everything.”

Intended originally as a solo project back in 2005, Into the Sun and Mighty were self-released by Schneider before enlisting the musical talents of his high school band mates. First to get on board was childhood friend Mark Barry who accompanies Schneider on vocals and plays percussion, Tom Renaud lends his guitar skills as well as his vocals to create the bands sweet harmonies while Miguel Briseno plays on bass and percussion.

“The first couple EPs I did just on my own, I wasn’t really sure what it’d turn into. I started getting asked to play shows and it sounded like fun so I called up some of my friends I’d had bands with in high school, still some of my best friends even though we had grown apart and thankfully they joined me.”

In the last year and a half, Lord Huron has made big splashes being featured on music blogs and playing some of North America’s biggest festivals. Looking forward to a bit of a break indeed however, Schneider has enjoyed everything about being on the road perhaps most notably, the diversity of it all.

“What I really liked about this year was that we got to play a huge variation of types of shows. Some cities we’d play to 200 people at a DIY style garage venue, then we’d go to NYC or other bigger cities and play big theatres of 1,200 people. Then we’d go to these festivals where sometimes we’re playing to 10, 000 people! There’s definitely something to appreciate at every level of show.”

Lord Huron has been busy with no signs of slowing down in the new year. Schneider is “pretty far along” writing new stuff for their next album and excited with the prospect of creating something new.

“I just want to write songs that I’m interested in writing and not think too much about trying to be too different or the relation to any old material, just kind of what comes natural feels the best to me.”